seeclickfix

SeeClickFix has used 21st-century technology to fix 2,666,448 issues (and still counting) in municipalities and other jurisdictions around the country. In this Q & A, CEO Ben Berkowitz talks about how the company he founded eight years ago has forged partnerships with 300 governments and other entities.

Local publishers have long served their communities by shining a light on municipal issues until the folks at City Hall take notice and fill in those dangerous potholes. But in the past few years we’ve also seen several startups pop up that want to make an even more direct connection between citizens’ complaints and government action…

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology... Local Online Ad Rev to Grow 31% in 2013 (NetNewsCheck)… Google’s Location-aware Field Trip Tour Guide App Now Serves Up Local Deals, Courtesy of Scoutmob (The Next Web)… How Location-Based Social Networks Are Changing the Game for Businesses (Entrepreneur)…

In the lead up to the storm, the New Haven-based company hooked up with the Huffington Post and NBC Washington to embed its interactive widget, which is already used by the Journal Register Company as well as smaller hyperlocal sites, into the sites’ storm-tracking coverage. Street Fight caught up with Ben Berkowitz, the co-founder and CEO of SeeClickFix, to talk about why “the crowd” is critical during major events…

I wonder why more hyperlocal news sites aren’t adopting, or at least adapting to, this new news model that makes community and journalism what they should be – partners. Journalists need to enter this new wall-less newsroom that has been reassembled digitally in the community. If they don’t, they will end up clutching at their buggy whips like the hansom drivers who had to give the right-of-way to Henry Ford’s Model A…

It can be difficult for journalists covering hyperlocal news events to find enough relevant information and quality sources to generate the types of comprehensive articles and reports that readers find useful. Here are seven tools that hyperlocal journalists can use to streamline the process of gathering data and generating the types of multiplatform content that readers embrace…

Add everything up, and you have a steadily growing number of sites that are innovating to find and produce quality news covering a myriad of topics. This added-value news is reaching and engaging more people, thanks principally to the giant leaps by social media. The best hyperlocals are becoming the X factor in the civic renaissance that communities need to emerge stronger from their trying economic times…

SeeClickFix started humbly — from potholes in New Haven, Conn. But it grew quickly as it mobilized citizens in thousands of communities around the U.S. to flag irritating and sometimes serious problems in their neighborhoods. But for all its social purpose, SeeClickFix is a for-profit company. Co-founder Ben Berkowitz talks about how SeeClickFix developed revenue from multiple sources…

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Is Groupon’s idiosyncratic CEO, Andrew Mason — an accordion-playing, ever paranoid prankster — ready to move his company forward and fight off a horde of copycats? (Vanity Fair)…

Newspaper sites like Boston.com have begun to integrate SeeClickFix, a hyperlocal civic action plug-in that allows users to click on a map, report issues in their neighborhoods, and comment on reports made by others. (Poynter)…

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.… Google Latitude, the search giant’s location-sharing mobile app, is launching check-in offers nationwide, giving users the ability to unlock discounts with a handful of launch partners. (Mashable)… Arianna Huffington says that Patch will be key to HuffPo’s coverage of the 2012 presidential election. “We’re launching over 30 new patches in primary states,” she said. (THR)… Yahoo has beefed up its local coverage, adding to its staff of local editors and aggregating local news, deals, and events in specific neighborhoods and cities on Yahoo Local. (PaidContent)